The Canon Pixma MG5520 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-in-One Printer is very similar in form to the Canon Pixma MG7120 Wireless Photo All-in-One Printer that Canon introduced at the same time, with a few differences. The MG5520 is matte black while the Canon MG7120 is glossy. The MG5520's LCD screen is non-touch, controlled by physical buttons. And the MG5520 lacks the MG7120's memory-card reader. The Canon MG7120 adds a sixth ink tank to the MG5520's five. They both share above-average photo quality, and the MG7120 was slightly faster at printing photos.

The MG5520 prints, copies, and scans. It measures 5.9 by 18 by 14.6 inches (HWD), and weighs 12.1 pounds. The paper feeder, which can fit up to 100 sheets of plain paper or up to 20 sheets of photo paper as small as 4 by 6 instead, is in front, below the output tray. On top of the printer is the letter-sized flatbed.

The 2.5-inch non-touch color LCD is controlled by buttons, 3 underneath the screen to select functions (copy, scan, or cloud); Home; On; plus and minus for setting the number of copies, monochrome and color scan buttons, and a 4-way rocker with center button.

Mobile Printing Features
The MG5520 is AirPrint-compatible, and also provides access to Pixma Cloud Linkwhich lets you print pictures from online photo albums, office templates, and more, even without a computerand Google Cloud Print, which lets you send documents to your printer from any Web-connected computer, smart phone, or device. It supports Pixma Printing Solutions (PPS), which lets you print and scan photos or documents from your mobile device. You can also print to the MG5520 by sending an email to an email address assigned to the printer.

With the cloud printing function you can print directly from select popular online Cloud services, such as Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, and more, either at the printer itself or with your mobile device using the free PPS app. You can also print from afar, by sending an email to a dedicated email address assigned to the printer.

The MG5520 can connect via Wi-Fi or directly to a computer via USB. I tested it over a USB connection with a PC running Windows Vista.

Print Speed
Speed for printing office documents is not a strong point for the MG5520. It printed out our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software) at 2.6 effective pages per minute (ppm), essentially the same speed as the MG7120 (2.5 ppm) and the Editors' Choice Canon Pixma MX922 at 2.4 ppm. We timed the Epson Expression Premium XP-600 Small-In-One Printer at a much faster 4.9 ppm.

It did better at photo speed, averaging 52 seconds per 4-by-6 print. The other printers discussed here all averaged 65 or 66 seconds per print.

Output Quality
Output quality is a strength for the MG5520, with slightly above-par text for an inkjet, average graphics quality, and slightly above-par photo quality. Text was good enough for any home, school, or in-house business use; I'd draw the line at documents like resumes with which you seek to impress through their visual appearance.

Graphics quality was below par, though still suitable for purposes like basic school or business reports. Though colors generally were good, some backgrounds showed a slight blotchiness or muted colors; several showed banding (a regular pattern of faint striations). Thin lines were all but lost in one illustration. Dithering in the form of graininess was obvious in some illustrations.

Photo quality was slightly above average for an inkjet. A monochrome photo showed slight tinting and a couple of splotches. There was a modest loss in detail in bright areas in a couple of prints. Most of the prints were at least drugstore quality, a couple of them better.

The MG5520 is a modestly priced home-centered MFP with few frills and slow speed, but good output quality, especially for photos and text. For the same price, you can get the much faster Epson Expression Premium XP-600 Small-In-One Printer, which also showed good photo quality and adds features like a port for a USB thumb drive, a memory-card reader, and a separate photo tray. Speed is usually less critical for home than for business use, so it may or may not be an important factor.

For $50 more than you'd pay for the MG5520, you can get the Canon MG7120, which adds a touch screen, memory-card reader, separate photo tray, and a sixth, gray ink tank. Alternately, you can get the Editors' Choice Canon Pixma MX922, which adds fax, Ethernet, a duplexing ADF, and a port for a USB thumb drive. Like the MG5520, both those Canons share above-par photo quality and ponderous print speed.

The Canon Pixma MG5520 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-in-One Printer can fit the bill as a modestly priced home printer with very good photo quality and relatively fast photo-printing speed for a printer of its price. Although it lacks the richer feature set of some comparable systems, it should deliver where it counts for many photo-happy home users.

As Analyst for printers, scanners, and projectors, Tony Hoffman tests and reviews these products and provides news coverage for these categories. Tony has worked at PC Magazine since 2004, first as a Staff Editor, then...

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